Friday, March 29

Student uses heritage in art to challenge beauty standards, tackle social issues


Student artist Symphony Esqueda paints portraits of female bodies that emphasize realistic depictions instead of societal beauty standards through including stretch marks and natural body fat. She said she embraces her Chicana heritage in her art by painting the figures with darker skin tones. (Lauren Kim/Daily Bruin)


Portraits of nude bodies pique curiosity in Symphony Esqueda’s paintings, cultivating a platform for women of all bodies and sizes to be seen.

The first-year English student said she creates art from a place of overcoming her insecurities and addressing societal standards of the female body. Each painting showcases and considers body types that Esqueda said don’t receive recognition in mainstream media. Using her art, she said, she is trying to show that all bodies are beautiful despite beauty standards that ignore the real parts of women’s bodies, like stretch marks and natural body hairs.

“I would love to say that I’m trying to spread these positive messages for the world in a very symbolic fashion,” Esqueda said. “That is a part of it, but for the most part, it truly is something that I needed for myself. I needed to see these bodies in a beautiful setting, I needed to see these visuals.”

When Esqueda sold her first painting to a buyer, she said an onlooker was so moved by the painting that she approached her to inquire about the piece. Esqueda said the onlooker was struck by how the piece showcased brown naked bodies and representations of Latina women that are oftentimes omitted from the professional art world. Given the stigma that surrounds paintings of naked women in the Latino community, Esqueda said it was reassuring to hear from an older Chicana that young women need to see this type of representation in the art world.

(Courtesy of Symphony Esqueda)
When she sold her first painting, Symphony said an onlooker was happy to see that her painting showcased naked brown bodies. (Courtesy of Symphony Esqueda)

[Related: Grupo Folklórico de UCLA to release online Día de los Muertos video performance]

But before she sold her first painting, Esqueda’s older sister Harmony Esqueda said they grew up in a creative household, coloring, painting and drawing at every opportunity. Symphony and her two sisters, Harmony and Melody Esqueda, were given musical names as a tribute to their grandpa, a musician in Guanajuato, Mexico. Symphony drew inspiration for her art pieces from her family and her Mexican heritage.

“As Mexican Americans, Latinx women (and) Chicanas, it’s been an exploration and a journey for Symphony and I to go back and relearn about stories of my grandpa,” Harmony Esqueda said. “But also, through the lens of Los Angeles and East Los Angeles, we are surrounded by murals everywhere we go that also relate to our history, and I think this has been a big inspiration (for her).”

The allegations surrounding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the sterilization of women at their detention centers are one of the social issues that Symphony Esqueda said she most recently addressed in her artwork. Her project depicts a naked woman curled up on the ground, behind barbed wire and painted entirely in different shades of red. But even if her art isn’t explicitly or overtly about a certain social issue, Esqueda said her experience as a Latinx woman will always be an underlying theme in her work.

Art is an extension of the artist,” Esqueda said. “So whatever background that artist comes from is automatically given to the art, it’s a context that you can’t overlook. Being from a background of low-income Chicana, that automatically gives a certain meaning to my art, and this would completely change if someone else had made it.”

(Courtesy of Symphony Esqueda)
Esqueda's recent project is a social critique of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's detention of women and the allegations of sterilization. (Courtesy of Symphony Esqueda)

[Related: With bold strokes, student uses her art as medium for activism]

In addition to her Mexican heritage, first-year neuroscience student and longtime friend Jasmine Reyes said Esqueda’s East Los Angeles pride is evident not only in the way she carries herself but also throughout her artwork. Esqueda may seem shy in conversation, but Reyes said it is through her art that she gives herself a creative voice and through which people are able to learn more about her. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Esqueda has played with new ways of making art materials like using berries for paint or leaves for canvasses.

“She is experimenting more with her artwork,” Reyes said. “We can’t necessarily go out and do other stuff, so she’s been spending more time with herself, with her thoughts, and this has resulted in her (creating) this newer, cooler and different artwork, this more abstract artwork.”

Through social media and her Instagram, Esqueda said she has been able to grow her outreach and use her portraits to connect with supporters online. Esqueda said she creates artwork for herself to work through her anxiety, but mostly she creates art because she feels it could be helpful to other people too. At the end of the day, Esqueda said she hopes the love she puts into her artwork will outlive her.

“Whenever I finish a piece, there’s a certain amount of love, and a part of me that’s captured in it, and a hope that this art piece will be there when I’m gone,” Esqueda said. “I truly want every single art piece of mine to make someone feel loved and cared for and understood in some sort of way.”


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